So remember when I bought the super fast and super awesome Crow? It was also an interceptor class ship so I thought maybe the Raptor may be of some use to me. And after all the articles that I have read about other people’s experiences with it, you would think I would have listened to them and not have bought the ship. Well I didn’t.

There are several huge flaws with the overall basic design of the Raptor. It is a very close range ship to deal ginormous amounts damage – but this means you can and will be webbed by others. The amount of powergrid that is available isn’t enough to fit the most juiciest guns – now you must sacrifice a low slot to fit a micro auxiliary power core instead of an overdrive. If you try to go long range your DPS drops extraordinarily, less than half of what you can do if you fly closer – which leaves you unable to kill the target. And either way, being close or far, you can’t go fast enough to avoid the damage of missiles – therefore fitting a MWD will increase your signature radius too much and still be slow enough to be hit by larger missiles.

I had prospects of this ship out doing the damage of the Crow by 3 times, but somehow that just never happened, because halfway through the battle the Raptor would have half of it’s shield eaten already. Then a minute later it’s down to armor and time to haul ass.  Not enough time to kill the intended target. This is one ship that would truly fit under the category of the “expensive tackler”.

One way to get some success is to hope the enemy doesn’t have a web equipped. And for maximum effectiveness, use an afterburner to keep your signature radius down and speed some what up. Orbit at 4000m and fire all of your neutron blasters. At times you can gank the opponent before your shields rot out; then at other times it’s seeing your ship falling short of it’s goal; and then at other times it is just at an arms race with your foe.

It would be a wise decision not to purchase this spacecraft. If there was a no joke dog fight between the two Caldari interceptors, the Crow will tear the Raptor a black hole and send it back into the Jurassic period where maybe then, it will finally reign on top.

[expand title=Technical Specs:]

• 5% bonus to small hybrid turret damage
• 10% bonus to small hybrid turret optimal range
• 5% reduction in signature radius
• 5% bonus to warp scrambler and warp disruptor range
• 80% reduction in propulsion jamming systems activation cost
• Tech 2 ship – Increased thermal damage resistance
• Default targeting range is 25 km with 4 locked targets
• Velocity is 415 m/sec with 0 m3 of drone capacity
• Shield hitpoints is 493 and recharges in 625 seconds
• Power grid is at 26MW, 150ft of CPU, and 400 calibration points
• There are 4 high slots, 3 medium slots, 3 low slots, and 2 rig slots
• 2 slots for launchers and 3 for turrets[/expand]

[expand title=Blasters Setup:]

• 3 Light Neutron Blaster
• 1 Rocket Launcher

• 1 1mn Afterburner
• 1 Warp Scrambler
• 1 Cap Recharger

• 1 Micro Auxiliary Power Core
• 2 Overdrive Injector[/expand]

[ratings]